[ EDITORIAL ]

Public Deeds: Gigs and Garlands

Published: Monday, February 18, 2013 at 12:02 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 18, 2013 at 12:02 a.m.

On this day in 1876, a direct telegraph link connected New Zealand to Britain. The line connected New Zealand to Australia, which followed on to Asia, Europe and Britain.

The mid- to late 19th century was a busy period for long overland and undersea runs of telegraph cable, allowing the first long-distance direct communications.

The electrical telegraph was developed and patented independently in England and the United States in 1837.

The first successful commercial undersea telegraph cable spanned the Atlantic Ocean in 1866.

A cable under the Pacific Ocean was completed in 1902, meaning that the world was encircled telegraphically.

Today, we will endeavor to translate dots and dashes into gigs and garlands.

GIG: To Lakeland City Attorney Tim McCausland for pushing the Lakeland City Commission hard to allow him to switch from his 401(a) retirement plan to a traditional pension plan, more than 20 years after being hired by the city as an attorney. He would contribute $800,000 or more to the pension plan if he is allowed to convert.

The 62-year-old McCausland would then qualify for annual pension payouts of more than $110,000, starting at age 65, for the rest of his life.

Upon employment, McCausland requested the stock market-based plan, reported The Ledger's John Chambliss in an article Tuesday. However, now McCausland says his plan fared poorly in the market.

If the pension push was not enough, particularly after it has raised public criticism and skepticism among a majority of the city commissioners, McCausland is pressing further for an employment contract with the city.

McCausland's employment with the city is no hardship case.

The proposed contract would nail down annual salary of $181,105, car allowance of $4,800, and accrual of $8,000 in sick leave and 40 days of vacation — eight weeks.

The contract would require the city to pay McCausland 20 weeks of severance pay if it fires him for cause, Chambliss reported Friday.

McCausland should not be surprised if his heavy-handed tactics just three years from retirement result in a public backlash that calls for simplification in the form of early retirement.

GARLAND: To leaders of Florida Citrus Mutual and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for their efforts to have an investigation opened into whether Brazilian processors shipped orange juice to Canada last year with intent of then having the juice exported to the United States.

The question beyond whether such action took place is whether it would be a violation of U.S. trade and tariff laws, reported The Ledger's Kevin Bouffard in an article Friday. The U.S. imposes a tariff on Brazilian orange juice but not on orange juice from Canada, because that nation participates with the U.S. in the North American Free Trade Agreement.

On Wednesday, Nelson met in Washington with Gary Doer, the Canadian ambassador to the United States.

"The ambassador pledged to look into it," Nelson's office said.

Doer's statement should provide the political pressure necessary for U.S. Customs and Border Protection to investigate, said Matt McGrath, a Washington lawyer representing Florida Citrus Mutual, Lakeland.

"It's the political level talking to the political level, and sometimes that opens information flows," McGrath said.

GIG: To the Florida House of Representatives Ethics & Elections Subcommittee for approving a bill that would increase individual campaign contributions to $10,000 from the present limit of $500.

A garland, however, to the bill and the subcommittee for the portion of the legislation that would do away with committees of continuous existence.

Contributions to and activity of the committees, known as CCEs, are hard to track and have been used to fund campaign attacks.

The contribution increase should be stripped from the bill — HB 569 — making the provisions to eliminate CCEs, the bill's focus.

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